Our 07 G35X sedan will not start, even with the i-key in the port. A few days ago it flashed the no key in car light but still started on a few tries. We replaced the battery and its been fine until tonight. Tried to start it, everything seems normal but it locks the brakes so we cant push the brakes and push start to crank it. Is this a safety feature? Anyone had this problem before? Please tell me its a stupid question with an easy fix. I looked everywhere on the forum already. Thanks in advance.

 

Your brakes are not "locked" it is just pressure built up.

If everything is normal other than the brake, I'm thinking that you need to just push the brake pedal really hard and push the start button. I'm thinking since you think the brake is locked that it is not registering when you step on it normally.

Press harder on the brake and push the button.

If it starts, check the battery that you replaced it with is not expired. I just went through this and bought some replacement batteries and little did I notice that they were alreay expired according to the packaging.

 

went out and tried that, same thing. i dont think thats the problem though because the "no key" light is on. what i dont get is the fob can unlock and lock the car and everything yet it says no key when im in the car trying to start it..

 

..............

 

^ scary :{ imma make sure that the drain in the battery compartment is clean tomorrow!

OP: not sure if you already had this done if not you should know that in the 07s the i-keys were faulty where they would fail after prolonged exposure to cell phones sitting right next to it which caused infiniti to put out a voluntary recall or TSB to have the keys replaced for free with newer design.

 

yea, i brought it to the dealer and it already had the key recall done. i was able to get it to start again yesterday morning and drove it to the dealer right away. at first they couldnt reproduce the problem but they kept it overnight and it happened again. they thought it might be a loose connection in the wiring harness or something so they took a look at it and nothing. now theres no dash lights and wont start either apparently. waiting til monday when the senior service guy comes in to check it out..

 

So just wanted to update, the dealer said they thought it was a faulty battery issue. Turns out it wasnt. Still was having the same problem so they tried some other stuff they said. In the end they figured its the switch in the steering column that controls the steering lock. They said theyll need to replace in and itll be roughly $1100. No choice but to order it, we just have to take their word for it... otherwise we dont know the next time we'll be stranded somewhere

 

OMG

That's a lot of money! Is there any chance you could DIY if you had the part and the service manual? I imagine most of the cost is in labor.

 

The opposite is actually true. The part is what is expensive. That and the fact that the car is stuck at the dealer. They also said the entire steering column will need to be taken out to put the switch in. I'm not that great mechanically already so I imagine a DIY would only make things worse lol

 

WOW.. 1100 chickens... that's a lot, but i guess u are stuck to pay it.. if the car wont start

 

Yeah, that's rough. I think I'd want to get the part number and then check for some better pricing on the parts if that's the major portion of the cost. My guess is that dealership is charging you full ride for them.

 

Just another update as things have gotten really weird... So the dealer called us and said the part came in, they put it in and the car still wont start.
All the mechanics are stumped, they need more time to do more tests and stuff to see if they can figure out the actual problem... This is such a headache.

 

ugh dealers suck so bad at this kind of stuff.... if you are out of warranty is there a good nissan shop in your area?

 

Who would u say is better than the dealer at this stuff? At least he doesn't have to pay for all the work they just did (since it didn't work)!!

I guess if you had a fantastic TECHNICIAN at another shop, that has worked on HR motors since they came out or was factory trained, it would be better that the dealership for $$$ purposes. I have nobody around my place that I know of (or that I can trust) that I could take my car to for this issue.

GL to the OP

 

I think the unfortunate truth is that dealerships often don't have a lot of really skilled (true "master") mechanics. They typically have a lot of mid and lower level competence techs who can adequately do about 90% of the typical work. When it comes to major stuff, they really aren't staffed for it so they have to rely on THEIR tech support. I think that's where a lot of this type of suffering comes in.

When I had my 6MT swapped, the tech told me that in his 6 years at the dealership, it was the very first manual manual tranny he'd ever replaced and one of the few he'd ever touched there. For folks who had a motor swapped, I've heard the factory will fly a specialist in to do the actual work. If you look for help with rebuilding smaller parts of the car, the dealer can't really offer help because they have literally never done it before; they just swap out whole assemblies.

Ask the parts department for internal parts (seals, gaskets, etc.) and they'll often tell you that they have to order them clear back to Japan because no one ever uses them. Try asking for a rebuild kit on a brake caliper and they'll probably tell you that they have zero history for ever having stocked or ordered the parts.

I guess you could look a the situation two ways; you could say it's good because you get whole new parts instead of "repaired" parts, but then the flip side of that, is that the guy working on your car probably isn't on the upper end of the scale for mechanical prowess.

Dealership techs do have access to factory support (parts, info, diagnostic tools, etc.) and that's often useful, but make no mistake, on tough problems, a true "master" mechanic can run circles around a parts swapper any day, and he'd probably be at an independent (perhaps his own) shop too. That being said, for warranty work, you're kinda stuck with dealers; like it or not.

To the OP, I hope the dealer isn't going to charge you for apparently misdiagnosing the problem and installing parts that probably weren't needed. G/L

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